Pages

The Blog Squad - Part 4

We are a group of three book bloggers situated on different continents but brought together by our love for books and a penchant for talking about them. We’ve joined our forces to create a collaborative series of posts about book blogging and we hope you’ll enjoy the discussions.

Do you need a Twitter and/or Facebook and/or Instagram account if you have a blog?

In short - no, BUT!!!! It definitely helps and for me, Twitter is a really wonderful place to connect with other bookish people. Authors are on Twitter, editors are on Twitter, publishers are on Twitter, book bloggers are on Twitter - the general public is on twitter! Twitter gives you the potential for a lot of followers that may not necessarily follow your actual blog, but will still give you ‘influence’ over the bookish world.

Personally I don’t really Bookstagram but I know that with this visual social media there is another veritable trove of followers, not to mention the mouth watering visuals of the bookish world!

“Obviously not”, is the easy answer. But I do think having at least a Twitter account helps a LOT. I didn’t have Twitter before I started my blog, and even after a few weeks of having a blog, I was daunted at the thought of creating an account. But it really helps - I’ve gotten a lot of publicity from having a Twitter account, and you also get to meet other bloggers and participate in a lot of giveaways; which has the highlight for me. You’re a lot more “present” in the latest book blitz and news with authors and publishers (depending on who you follow, obviously), and I find that publishers are a lot more likely to send you review copies if you’re actively present on social media. To be honest, I wouldn’t have thought of requesting a book without at least one social media account (excluding the blog, obviously).

I don’t have a bookstagram and I do fine without it, but I know from other bloggers that it also really helps with blog traffic and publicity.

Facebook definitely isn’t essential - I don’t think I get much from my Facebook page - but it’s just another way to advertise your blog and “get out there”. Not essential, but a harmless addition.

I think it comes down to what you want for your blog. If you’re happy with your steady amount of traffic and aren’t requesting a ton of review copies, then not having Twitter or Bookstagram isn’t a big deal. But if you want review copies and lots of exposure, social media is the best way to go. And I’d recommend Twitter out of all the options.

Which blogging platform do you think is the best? Why do you use Blogger?

Who thinks up these questions! ;) These are tough!

I think that there are pros and cons out there to all the popular blogging platforms. The most popular that I know are Blogger and Wordpress and I happen to use Blogger. It was the one that I stumbled upon first and looked the easiest. It definitely has its limitations and I think that, for the amateur user at least, Blogger is easier but is somewhat less powerful than Wordpress without a lot of ‘tweaks’.

At the end of the day though, so long as your blog isn’t visually unappealing it’s your content that matters more than anything else. We can sit and play and tweak and overhaul graphics and layouts but if you aren’t posting quality content on a regular basis - none of it will matter.

I actually started a Wordpress blog before I started a Blogspot one. Well...started is a strong word; I began to set up a Wordpress blog because my aunt suggested it since she uses Wordpress, but then I got all flustered cause it just looked so confusing and big and messy. So I went on Blogger, and found it a LOT easier (Yeah, I still sweated and cried bloody tears, but compared to my first experience of Wordpress it was much easier.)

So I use Blogger because it’s a lot simpler than Wordpress, which is fine for me and my blog at this stage. I know that some people get annoyed at Blogger’s limitations, but it suits me at the present.

What comment system do you prefer to use?

I think my absolute favourite comment system is CommentLuv, however this is a Wordpress addon. My favourite option for Blogger that is super easy to use and install is actually Disqus and that’s why I use it. I love the way the emails are sent to notify users of new comments and replies, you don’t have to sign up to each and every post and it’s easy enough to ‘thread’ discussions in emails so I know exactly which is for what.

Whatever comment system you use, when you go to someone else’s comment system please, please, please make sure your profile is filled out. It’s so hard to try and google people and trace them back to their blogs and while I used to do this all the time, now my life has been so busy I just don’t have the time, so if someone doesn’t reply with their blog links I’m unable to follow up and leave them some comment love on their own blogs.

I use the default Blogger Commenting system.

I would switch to Disqus in a flash (IT’S SO CLEAN AND PRETTY AND YOU GET NOTIFS FOR REPLIES), but I’m nervous that I would lose a lot of commenters if I switched. I do love the fact that Disqus notifies you if someone replies to your comment, and that would be my main incentive to change. I am still in the process of deciding, but for now Blogger works for me :)

If you'd like to read my responses, hop on over to their collab posts!

We hope you’ve enjoyed our fourth discussion post! Please talk to us and let us know YOUR answers below. What do you think of our responses? If you have any specific questions you’d like us to address in the future, please let us know in the comments section below.